The Dark Side of the Moon
by Larathin Bradley
Summary: The Summer Sun Celebration has rolled around again, and Celestia must prepare for a yearly duty that is slightly more onerous then simply raising the sun...


Some stories take forever to come together, and some end up taking you all of maybe two hours to write.

This was one of the second kind.

Still, I had fun writing it and I hope you'll have fun reading it. So grab yourself a cup, can or bottle of your favorite beverage, sit back, read, review and enjoy.

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><p>Every year it came. Every year the light came and gloated. It laughed and pointed while she languished and rotted in this thrice damned hell!<p>

It always came, the same day every year, as regular as... as... as the dawn! She laughed at that, well, not laughed, laughing implies happiness or joy. This contained neither. It was a hollow, insane thing, as twisted as that from which it came.

And every year the light strutted around this little hell, clucking and whispering as though this hadn't been the light's fault, as if it had been hers. Hers!

And every year it left, as free as... as... the sun...

Another laugh, just as twisted and angry and bitter as the first.

It was free and she was here, trapped in a little slice of hell, to slowly rot in the shadows and the darkness while the light pranced free. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair! Here, time dragged by, every second lasting an eternity until she was almost happy to see the light again, just to break the monotony.

Almost, but not quite.

The years crawled by, with only the light to mark the passage of time as she was trapped in this prison of anger and shadows, a living nightmare of hell brought to life in the absolute darkness.

But she'd be free, oh yes. And soon! She'd break out of this hell and rainy bloody vengeance upon those who had done this to her! She'd watch them slowly freeze and starve and she'd delight in their suffering!

All she had left was the damned light and her vengeance, and one burned much brighter then the other in the darkness of her soul.

But she'd be free... oh yes...

"Soon..."

"Your Majesty?"

The door to Celestia's private chambers were eased open and a white pegasus stuck his head inside, peering around cautiously.

"I'm here, Scrib."

The pegasus snapped to attention, his hoof banging off his breastplate.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, your Majesty, but Commander Wrex sent me to find you. He said we need to leave now if we're going to make it to the plaza in time for you to raise the sun."

"At ease, Scrib," Celestia smiled. She had a soft spot in her heart for the awkward guard captain. "You can go tell Wrex I'll be along shortly."

"If it's all the same to you, ma'am, I'll just wait for you outside. Wrex doesn't need to know I've found you yet. I know you have... things you need to do before we go."

Celestia nodded in thanks and Scrib stepped out of the room, easing the door closed behind him. That was another reason she liked the pegasus, he'd only been in her service a few years now and already she could rely on him completely.

That, and he understood that there was more to today then just raising the sun. There was something else she had to do on this day every year, something even more important...

Celestia closed her eyes and focued, her horn glowing with a bright light as she focused her magic. For a moment, nothing happened. And then the world dropped out from underneath her, and Celestia's mind went soaring up into the sky. She hung in the air over Equestria, far higher then any pegasus could fly, and smiled.

Her home really was beautiful, especially during the night, lit as it was by the soft silver of the moon and the twinkling of the stars.

With a sigh, she returned her thoughts to the task at hand and went back to zipping through the sky, the moon growing closer and closer until it filled her vision. Celestia applied a touch of magic, and she swung around to the dark side of the moon.

"Luna...? Luna, can you hear me?" the alicorn called as she alighted on the soft rock of the lunar surface, her astral hooves making no mark in the dust

Though there was no wind on the moon, and her astral projection didn't feel the cold the way a normal pony would, Celestia shivered. She hated coming here, but she had to, it was the least she could do for her sister.

"Luna, please, I know you're there. Talk to me."

The darkness around her was absolute, so thick that even with an alicorn's preternatural senses her eyes couldn't pierce the gloom. Celestia focused, and her horn began to glow with a soft white light that pushed away the darkness.

She moved forward noiselessly. There was no air here to carry sound. There was nothing here at all, in fact, just darkness and...

Her light fell upon the lip of a crater, sliding around the ragged gouge in the moon's surface though it didn't illuminate the interior.

And though there was no way for sound to travel, Celestia felt something stir in the bottom of the crater.

"Luna, it's Tia," she called, keeping her voice soft. "I want to talk... please."

"Leave..."

"Luna, listen to me, please. I just want to talk, all right?"

"Leave..."

"Luna..." Celestia began.

"Leave me alone!" Something screamed, the force of it so strong that it physically drove Celestia back a pace.

There was a flash of movement and, faster then Celestia could see, something burst out of the crater, darkness trailing off it like water from a breaching whale. The thing, whatever it was, threw itself at Celestia only to be stopped short as bars of pure light appeared in the air between the two. The thing crashed against the bars, screaming in rage and then in pain as the bars burnt it. The thing darted back into the darkness of the crater, the bars of light slowly dissipating.

But a pair of eyes glowing a sickly green stayed visible in the crater's depths, burning sullenly in the darkness.

"Leave..." it hissed.

"I know you're in there somewhere..." Celestia whispered, taking another step forward, and then another, moving toward the crater until the bars of light burned once more in the darkness, preventing her from getting any closer to the crater. "Can't you come back to me? I'll take you back home, and we can be a family again. Come back to me Luna, please..."

The thing in the crater screamed and reared up, the cage's light revealing it in all its terrible glory. It was shaped like a mare with a black coat, it's mane a shifting mass of stars. Dark wings spread from it's back, and a long spiraled horn ending in a wicked point sprouted from it's forehead.

It had once been known as Luna.

Now, the twisted thing called itself only Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon charged once more, slamming into the bars of light, screaming as they burned at her body and wings. She slewed her head back and forth, her horn sending off cascades of sparks as it crashed against the bars.

She beat against her prison with the ferocity and mindlessness of an animal, screaming her hatred and pain all the while as Celestia watched, her heart close to breaking.

Finally Nightmare Moon gave up, and settled with thrusting her head between the bars.

"It's not fair!" she roared, before slinking back into the crater.

Celestia nodded. "All... alright," she choked, trying to blink back tears. I... I'll see you next year, Luna..."

Then she turned and spread her wings and the moon dropped away beneath her. Within moments she was gone.

In the darkness of her prison, Nightmare Moon smiled. Her prison had held, but it was getting weaker. Soon she would be free. Free to take her revenge on the light. Free to take out her anger on those who had betrayed her.

Soon...

Celestia opened her eyes and blinked slowly, trying not to feel the tears that streamed down her face. Another year, another failure. But she had to keep trying, she couldn't just keep Luna locked away for all of eternity.

Even now, she could feel the prison that held the thing that had once been her sister was beginning to weaken. It would only be a decade or two until it failed completely. But that was a matter for another time, right now she had a duty to her subjects.

Wiping away the last of her tears, Celestia rose from her bed and pushed open her door. Scrib was leaning against the wall, a pencil held in his teeth as he scribbled into a small notebook. Smiling Celestia cleared her throat loudly and pulled the door closed quickly. She waited a moment and then pushed it open. Scrib was standing sharply at attention, waiting for her, though she couldn't help but notice there was a pencil hastily tucked behind one ear.

"Your Majesty."

"At ease, Scrib. I'm ready whenever you are. I suppose we should be going before the good commander has another one of his episodes, they really can't be good for his blood pressure."

The pegasus had to stifle a laugh at that and the Princess smiled at him. In the nine-hundred years since she'd been forced to banish Luna, Scrib was the only pony she'd met who would laugh at her jokes. Her other guards would just stay stone faced while the nobles would all bray and guffaw at the tiniest thing in blatant attempts to ingratiate themselves. She knew he occasionally got in trouble with the Commander for his "disrespect", but he continued anyway because he seemed to sense that she appreciated it.

He was the closest thing she could get to normal interaction.

"If you'll step right this way, ma'am, your chariot is waiting..."

Luna would've like him, she'd always hated the formality and pomp of her position... Fighting back tears, Celestia stepped onto her chariot and it lurched into motion as Wrex and Scrib took up station near her.

She sincerely hoped that, one day, the pegasus captain would get to meet her sister.


End file.
